EDITORIAL
The British Empire Can No Longer Hide Its Crimes
April 18 (EIRNS)—On every front of the U.K.’s panicked effort to stop President Trump’s intention to bring the U.S. into friendly relations with Russia and China, the lies can no longer be covered up. This is true in the Russiagate hoax launched by MI6 operative Christopher Steele; the Skripal hoax run by the same MI6 circle; and the Douma chemical attack hoax created by the British-funded and -controlled White Helmet terrorists. Across the U.S., Europe, and around the world, leading figures and governments are telling the bloody British Empire that it is wearing no clothes.
Even in the U.K. itself, the stench of the imperial lies can no longer be tolerated. Former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, who has been an outspoken opponent of the war on Syria, has now gone on Fox News in the U.S., with Tucker Carlson, reporting that the chemical attack in Douma never happened, and that President Trump’s advisors “have served him extremely badly” by not informing him that the White Helmets are simply part of the terrorist operation. Back in London, the Empire’s The Times has discovered, to its horror, that the former head of the Special Air Services (SAS), Maj. Gen. John Holmes, who led the SAS during the first Gulf War, has now joined the British Syria Society, headed by Ambassador Ford, and is demanding dialogue with Assad. This past Monday, Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, Admiral and Chief of British Defense Intelligence, went on BBC to debunk the idea that Assad used chemical weapons, pointing to the absurdity of doing so upon purely military grounds, since he was winning and it served only the terrorists’ interests.
China’s foremost journalist, Yang Rui, yesterday stepped beyond the usually reserved Chinese commentary on world strategic affairs to equate the claim of a chemical attack to justify the allied bombing of Syria to the Nazi stunts used to launch invasions and atrocities, emphasizing that the White Helmets are killers, and that China and Russia will stand firmly together against this and any further criminal wars. He warned that the human race must reverse the collapse into a “post-truth world.”
Across Europe, the EU is splintering in the face of British lies. The EU Foreign Ministers on April 16 failed miserably in an effort to pass a resolution supporting the British-French-U.S. attack on Syria, with eight countries refusing to support it, including Italy, Belgium, and Austria.
In the U.S., eleven Republican Congressmen forwarded a criminal complaint to the Department of Justice for “investigation of potential violation of federal statutes” by the primary assets of the British MI6 coup attempt against Trump: the disgraced former FBI chief James Comey and his equally disgraced deputy Andrew McCabe; Hillary Clinton (for disguising her financing of the infamous Steele dossier); Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch; and two current FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page who plotted to peddle the British lies against Trump.
The Empire is badly bruised, but is not yet destroyed. The moment of opportunity to crush it, once and for all, is at hand—but their desperation can not be ignored. The post-World War II order established through the United Nations, to prevent another world war, is to be abolished in a new “East vs. West” military confrontation under British control. Prime Minister Theresa May last November called for a new “Global Britain,” and, leaving nothing to the imagination, said, “the task for global Britain is clear…. To defend the rules-based international order against irresponsible states that seek to erode it…, chief among those… is, of course, Russia…. I have a very simple message for Russia: We know what you are doing. And you will not succeed.”
Gen. Sir Nick Carter, whom May appointed as the new Chief of the Defense Staff in March, has declared Russia to be the “arch-exponent” of “exploiting the seams between peace and war … [engaging in] corrupt business practices, cyber-attacks, assassination, fake news, propaganda and indeed military intimidation.”
But the dying British Empire is indeed naked without the U.S. functioning as their “dumb giant,” as was the case with Obama and Bush in the White House, waging wars of mass destruction across the Mideast and bankrupting the Western financial system through speculation and wars. Trump can and must be persuaded to act on his best impulses—to befriend Russia, and to join fully in China’s New Silk Road. To that end, the LaRouche Political Action Committee this week will reprint an updated version of the mass circulation pamphlet “America’s Future on the New Silk Road—LaRouche’s Four Laws: The Physical Economic Principles for the Recovery of the United States.”
As Helga Zepp-LaRouche said today: “This is the most important moment in history. If the British Empire is destroyed, the human race can breathe again and create a new society.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
GOP Reps Seek Investigation of Clinton, Comey, Former FBI/DOJ Chiefs for Potential Crimes
April 18 (EIRNS)—In a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber, eleven Republican Congressmen, led by Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, have referred a group of former FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) bigwigs, as well as former Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for “investigation of potential violations(s) of federal statutes.”
Aside from Clinton, among those named are former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI Counsel Lisa Page, and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
In reporting on the letter, DeSantis stated that the “political elite are not immune from the rule of law, and those in positions of high authority should be treated the same as any other American.” Rep. Jody Hice (GA) said he wanted Sessions, Wray and Huber to specifically “examine potential criminal wrongdoing” of the indicated individuals; their actions “point to evidence of corruption and possible treason,” said Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ).
For each one of the individuals named, the letter spells out the federal statutes they may have violated, specifying at some length the actions of James Comey. Hillary Clinton, it charges, disguised payment to Fusion GPS on “mandatory disclosures to the Federal Election Commission,” a violation of federal statutes. It also zeroes in on the misuse of the Steele dossier in warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court for surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page, stating that “we refer to DOJ all DOJ and FBI personnel responsible for signing the Carter Page warrant application that contained unverified and/or false information.”
The Congressmen signing the letter include DeSantis, Ted Yoho and Matt Gaetz of Florida; Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona; Dave Brat of Virginia; Jeff Duncan of South Carolina; Andy Harris of Maryland; Jody Hice of Georgia; Todd Rokita of Indiana; and Claudia Tenney of New York.
The text of letter is available on Congressman DeSantis’ House website.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russia Charges Yulia Skripal Being Held Hostage in U.K., Subjected to ‘Psychological Manipulation’
April 18 (EIRNS)—Speaking at today’s meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Russian Ambassador Alexander Shulgin charged that Yulia Skripal, daughter of former Russian GRU colonel turned British double agent Sergei Skripal, is being held hostage by British authorities. She is being hidden from the media and the public, “her whereabouts are unknown,” and neither Russian authorities nor her relatives can see her. Nor, Shulgin said, is Miss Skripal—a Russian citizen who had come from Russia to visit her father in England when the March 4 poisoning took place—being allowed to return to Russia to undergo medical examination and treatment, TASS reported him as saying.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that Yulia Skripal is a hostage, being “held by force on the territory of the United Kingdom, subjected to psychological manipulations.”
Members of the Russian delegation to the meeting also charged that it’s likely that British medical workers put both Sergei and Yulia Skripal into an “induced coma deliberately, which gave them the opportunity to collect biological material and manipulate the state of their health, even without consulting them.”
Former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford Exposes Lies against Syria on Fox News
April 18 (EIRNS)—Former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, who has been outspoken in telling the truth about the British crimes in Syria, went on U.S. TV with the same message last night. Interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Ford said, “It’s not certain by any means that it was a chemical attack,” on April 7 in Douma. He reviewed the multiple reports from past days by those who have gone to Douma and report no evidence of a chemical attack, and further describes the White Helmet creation of video showing alleged treatment of the victims, then says: “And, there’s a distinct possibility that we have been deluded. That we’ve been suckered. I think the [U.S.] President’s advisors have served him extremely badly. They have not been asking the hard questions, like who are these White Helmets? Was the President was told that these are the people who have helped in beheadings, who have literally been picking up the pieces. Are these are the people that he thinks would be good witnesses?”
Back in London, The Times today, denounced the British Syria Society (BSS) run by Ambassador Ford, for “championing the brutal regime in Syria,” but is particularly horrified to have learned that the former head of the Special Air Services (SAS), Maj. Gen. John Holmes, who led the SAS during the 1990 Gulf War, is also a member of the BSS. Also in BSS, they report, is Lord Green of Deddington, another former Ambassador to Syria, from 1991-94. Both Holmes and Green joined in January of this year. They report that BSS was “set up and is run by Fawaz Akhras, President Bashar al-Assad’s father-in-law, who is a cardiologist in Harley Street, London.”
Holmes told The Times that he joined because he believes in dialogue. “Perhaps [the BSS] is not the ideal vehicle for that, but at the moment it’s the only vehicle,” he said.
Green resigned from BSS several years ago but joined again in January, and speaks regularly in Lords’ debates against regime change. He told The Times: “There are a substantial number of people in the government-held areas of Syria who would much prefer the present regime—for all its faults—than the alternative. That applies particularly to minorities, including the Christians…. For them the collapse of this regime and its likely replacement by Islamic extremists would be extremely damaging.”
British Move To Shut Down RT for Overly Truthful Coverage
April 18 (EIRNS)—Britain’s media police, the Office of Communications, or Ofcom, announced today that they are opening “seven new investigations into the due impartiality of news and current affairs programs on the RT news channel.”
The RT license in the U.K. is held by TV Novosti. Ofcom states: “Until recently, TV Novosti’s overall compliance record has not been materially out of line with other broadcasters. However, since the events in Salisbury, we have observed a significant increase in the number of programs on the RT service that warrant investigation as potential breaches of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.”
This Big Brother operation describes itself “the communications regulator in the U.K.,” whose role is to “make sure that people in the U.K. get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that competition can thrive.” Unless, of course, the “competition” is telling the truth, which simply cannot be entertained within the Empire.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Trump Rejects Reports He Wants U.S. To Rejoin Trans-Pacific Partnership
April 18 (EIRNS)—Before his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida yesterday, President Trump dismissed the recent reports that he is considering re-joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was formed without the U.S. when Trump dropped out as one of his first acts as President. The TPP also excluded China.
Trump tweeted yesterday: “While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for ourworkers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S.”
China Development Bank Chief Underscores World Importance of Belt and Road
April 18 (EIRNS)—In his keynote to “The New Agenda in China’s Economic Development and the Belt and Road Initiative” at the Brookings Institution today, Zheng Zhijie, the president of the China Development Bank, one of the chief financial institutions financing Belt and Road Initiative projects, underscored the BRI as a “panacea for peace and economic development.” “It is increasingly clear that the world is supportive of the Belt and Road. Some countries are lacking resources, and they need mid-to long-term investment. We can provide capital for the long-term.” “The BRI is involved in creating corridors, with six corridors and six roads,” he said, pointing to the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railroad, the U.K. nuclear project, and the construction of an international airport in Cambodia. “Secondly we are supporting production capacity,” he said. The bank has established a center for this in Shanghai and is working in the Middle East in a China-Mideast consortium aimed at sharing production capacity. And thirdly, the BRI is investing in people’s livelihoods, with 27 agricultural programs being funded by CDB. They are involved in 98 programs with the BRI and have supported them with more than $180 billion. He referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s keynote at the Boao Forum for Asia that the “reform and opening up” was China’s “second revolution.”
Later in a panel discussion, Zhou Yanli, Vice President of the International Finance Forum, stated that China would be creating a China-Africa Capacity Development Center, and that they were looking for venues in the Middle East. He further said that in addition to the new Shanghai center, they had also set up a capacity development center in Dalian. He also described that the CDB was working with the IMF on capacity development and that the CDB was financing one-third of the capacity development work of the IMF.
On the second panel, Liu Yong, the chief economist for the China Development Bank, made some remarks on the U.S.-China trade dispute. He stated that while China’s GDP is significant on a world scale, its per-capita GDP is still small. U.S. per-capita GDP is seven times that of China, which is why China still regards itself as a developing country and not on a par with the United States. He said the trade issue is a long-term structural problem and has more to do with the high savings rate and low consumption rate in China compared to the U.S. He reiterated the three major “problem areas” that China is focusing on, namely, financial risk, environmental problems and poverty alleviation. When EIR asked if there were more concern about domestic bubbles or the danger of a new global financial crisis like 2008, Liu replied, “The real risk is in the financial sector. The biggest danger is from the global financial system.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Libya Anxious To Join the Belt and Road, Wants Chinese Firms To Return
April 18 (EIRNS)—In an April 16 meeting with Wang Qimin, Chinese Embassy chargé d’affaires in Tripoli, Libya’s UN-backed Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed M’etig said that his government was very anxious to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
China, he said, “is a country with great and important political and economic weight in the world,” and stressed the importance of developing bilateral relations in a variety of fields, including the return of Chinese companies to complete “suspended projects.”
Libya is willing to provide security for those companies, M’etig said, explaining that joining the BRI is the best way to develop the national economy and rebuild the country. Wang stressed that the return of Chinese companies is obviously linked to the country’s security, but that China will encourage its companies to return as soon as the security situation stabilizes.
Restarting those “suspended projects” is crucial for Libya’s future. As reported in EIR’s report “Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia and Africa: A Vision of an Economic Renaissance,” both China and Russia were deeply involved in key railroad infrastructure projects in Libya, up until the time of the March 2011 NATO-led war against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, and his subsequent murder in October 2011. In the early 2000s, the Libyan government began building new railways connecting the country’s east with the west, along the Mediterranean coast, for a total planned length of 3,200 km, all with standard gauge. This was part of the North Africa railway link.
In March 2011, there were simultaneous several projects underway by Chinese and Russian companies. In 2008, China’s Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) had begun building a new, double-track 352 km railway line from Al-Khoms near Tripoli in the west to Sirte in the middle of Libya’s coast, scheduled for completion in 2013. CRCC was also contracted to build another 172 km railway, construction on which began in 2009. In 2008, Russian Railways (RZD) began building a 554 km double-track rail line between Sirte and Benghazi, with a completion date of 2013, and plans were made for another rail line going farther east to Tobruk, near the Egyptian border. Thanks to NATO’s murderous intervention, all these projects had to be halted. Now, the Belt and Road provides hope that they can be restarted.
Ambassador: Syria Looks to China as Economic Model
April 18 (EIRNS)—Syria’s Ambassador in Beijing Imad Moustapha said his country is looking to China not only for reconstruction, but also as a role model for economic development. “Syria does look to China as a model that can be emulated,” said Moustapha, stating that he’s issued hundreds of visas to Chinese businesses. “It has been a model of the state playing the role of an entrepreneur, helping certain sectors in the economy and industry to develop in which they also take care of the more vulnerable classes.”
Trump Reports, Pompeo Met with Kim Jong-un in North Korea
April 18 (EIRNS)—Trump made public today that CIA director Mike Pompeo held a meeting with Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Pompeo has been nominated to replace Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, but has not yet been confirmed in the Senate.
Trump tweeted today: “Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong-un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!”
EIR Raises U.S. Joining Belt and Road at Brookings Conference on BRI
April 18 (EIRNS)—The International Finance Forum (IFF), founded 15 years ago in Beijing with participation of the United Nations and other international organizations, introduced its IFF China Report 2018 at a Brookings Institution event in Washington today. The conference theme was “The New Agenda in China’s Economic Development and the Belt and Road Initiative.” The report itself has not yet been reviewed by EIR.
China Development Bank President Zheng Zhijie gave the keynote presentation in which he outlined the bank’s investment in the Belt and Road—$110 billion in loans thus far, including $60 billion in “trade zones” along the BRI—and spoke of how it sought “secure capital but a low rate of return” on this credit. Zheng said “the Belt and Road opportunities and outcomes belong not only to China but to the world.”
The experts on the morning panel, on the “Belt and Road Initiative,” examined the characteristics of China’s BRI investments, their interest rates, risk levels (credit risk, and reputational risk, too, reminded the utterly German IMF representative Markus Rodlauer), types of project assessments, whether China expected to lose money on projects, effects of debt exposure on BRI countries, etc.
During the question period, EIR went way off topic by asking panelists to “consider one economy with an extreme and crippling lack of any investment in BRI-type new infrastructure—namely the United States—and the stated willingness of China to invest in them here. Ought not the United States to create an investment bank or national credit institution in which large holders of long-term Treasuries—be they China, Japan, U.S. commercial banks—can convert them to equity in this national bank for project investments here and in third countries, so that the United States can truly be brought into the Belt and Road Initiative?”
Panel moderator David Dollar responded, “Wow, all right—does anybody want to try that one?” Panelist Zhou Yanli, IFF vice chairman, first volunteered that this was “a matter for the central banks,” but then answered at length. He discussed the United States’ need for to build railway transport, China’s current building of urban-rail train sets for U.S. cities, China’s own prowess in rail building in China, and gave illustrations that the Chinese want more and more cooperation with the United States, including education, tourism, etc. China is the largest holder of Treasuries, Zhou pointed out, and very interested in projects in America. But he said it was actually as a “monetary policy matter” that this would be interesting; he himself was going to the IMF meetings in Washington, a few blocks away, and said monetary cooperation were the kind of thing to discuss there. The Federal Reserve and People’s Bank of China—China’s central bank—would need to deal with it. “But a good question,” he concluded.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
U.S. Energy Secretary Assures India, Westinghouse Will Build Four Nuclear Power Plants
April 18 (EIRNS)—Speaking to reporters in New Delhi yesterday, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry reaffirmed Westinghouse’s commitment and ability to honor its contract to build six nuclear plants in India. The U.S. and India, it was announced, will also “deepen cooperation on oil and gas, power, renewable energy and coal,” Reuters reports. During the press conference with India Oil and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, they released a joint statement reaffirming “their strong commitment to early and full implementation of our civil nuclear partnership.” The bankruptcy of Westinghouse last year had caused concern on the part of the Indian government. The nuclear giant is to build six reactors in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
“Nobody in the world makes better reactors than Westinghouse,” Perry said, following a meeting with Minister Pradhan. In fact, about half of the operating reactors in the world were built by Westinghouse. Perry said that now Westinghouse is “lean and mean and ready to go to work.”
Perry and Pradhan also “noted with appreciation the growing investment of Indian companies in the United States.”
OTHER
Splits in EU More Aggravated by Air Strikes on Syria
April 18 (EIRNS)—The EU was prevented at its April 16 foreign ministers session in Luxembourg, from passing a declaration of solidarity with the April 13-14 air raids on Syria by the U.S., U.K., and France. The foreign ministers of Italy and Belgium opposed such a move, as only aggravating the relations with Russia. The foreign ministers of the non-NATO countries also spoke out against any official declaration: Austria, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus.
The surfacing of dissidents to the geopolitical line of the EU has become a pattern on all major decisions recently: Thus, the European Defense Union was signed by only 24 out of 28 member states; in the Skripal-related sanctions against Russia, there were 10 states that voted against; new propaganda attacks against China were not backed by Hungary; the EU threat of sanctions against Poland and Romania over the two countries’ judicial reforms were also not backed by Hungary. The “European Union” has become a “European Dis-Union.”
